How would you keep database integration tests isolated and safe to run in parallel?

Isolate database integration tests

Compares rollback, reset, schema, database, and tenant isolation without hiding transaction or parallelism limits.

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Common options are a transaction rolled back after each test, resetting tables to a known baseline, or giving each test a unique database, schema, or tenant key. I choose based on how the application opens connections and commits work. Every test creates its own logical data and never relies on execution order or rows left by another test.

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Transactions, database resets, unique namespaces, parallel execution, cleanup, and realistic behavior.

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Database tests lose trust when one test's rows or transaction leak into another. The isolation choice also affects whether the test behaves like the application.
Common options are a transaction rolled back after each test, resetting tables to a known baseline, or giving each test a unique database, schema, or tenant key. I choose based on how the application opens connections and commits work. Every test creates its own logical data and never relies on execution order or rows left by another test.
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Rollback is fast but can mislead when the application opens another connection, starts its own transaction, or uses background workers. A deterministic reset works across connections but must handle foreign keys and identity values correctly. A separate schema or database gives stronger isolation and parallelism at higher setup cost. I often share the database server or container, not the mutable dataset.

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Using one shared account or row.
Assuming transaction rollback covers other connections.
Deleting tables with an unchecked connection string.
Making tests depend on source order.

How would you keep database integration tests isolated and safe to run in parallel?

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